Gakuto Hara
Gakuto Hara (原 ガクト,'' Hara Gakuto'')'' is a ninja of Iwagakure. He shows great proficiency with genjutsu and poisons, but avoids close combat fights due to his dangerous cultivation technique. He is typically assigned as a scout to one of Iwa's various outfield drop points. While he currently holds chūnin status, his background and specialization has inspired him to apply for a promotion to tokubetsu jōnin. Gakuto Hara is property of Shotons on The N.O.W.. Background Gakuto spent the majority of his childhood absorbing survival tactics by osmosis in the unforgiving wetlands of the Valley of Lies. His biological mother was killed in the wake the Black Egg Affair, leaving Gakuto to be raised by her lover in secret. While the Iwahara were not a particularly wealthy clan, their poison skills were nevertheless in high demand among those who could afford them. As soon as he could be trusted not to swallow anything immediately dangerous, Gakuto was apprenticed to one of Mitsuari's more well established cousins to begin his remedies and poisons training. The Iwahara always had more bitterness than sense, and they jealously guarded their formulas even from one another. The older he got, the more sensible he was of his cousins' complex rivalries and scheming. Gakuto grew used to getting underfoot of his bickering elders to absorb the stinging critiques of "this mixture" or "that technique," and entertained himself by engaging in the family tradition of cheekily poisoning each other when their backs were turned. Personality Gakuto's bluntness and tendency to "cut to the quick" paints him as a rather flippant person. As a natural result, he tends to bring out the worst in people; during their first meeting he managed to crack the "stone face" of Hito "Yuki" Hira, famous for his cool head. Gakuto has an extremely conflict-avoidant personality, seeming to ignore major problems until they go away while at the same time obsessing over minor inconveniences as a way to micromanage his own perception of self-control. Several people have referred to him as especially heartless due to his apparent lack of reaction to rage or grief. In Part II, Kochō's death seems to act as a catalyst for his breakdown. Gakuto's youth has left him socially confused, and he often questions the nature of his relationships with others. He takes cues from very mild cases of annoyance or disappointment, and as a result he tends to be kind of a pushover to keep himself in others' good graces. He hates to initiate "milestones" in his relationships and expresses anxiety about possibly committing a social faux-pas. Despite his flaws, he is an empathetic person who often faces difficulty when he is expected to be emotionally vulnerable or sincere. Appearance Gakuto's predominant features are his wedge-shaped nose and round eyes. His hair is wavy and sand-coloured, and it is typically tied back to frame either side of his round, "babyish" face. As a child, his hair was extremely long and wild (a consequence of being too thick and coarse to cut through by regular means); after the events of Part I, he keeps it at chin or shoulder-length. He tends to use his hair as a mode of personal expression far more than his clothes, which resulted in several major cut-and-dye changes from the ages of fourteen to nineteen. Gakuto also inherited two dark marks on the right side of his chin and the Fujiwara's reddish "boar's eyes." He is stocky and tall for his age. Gakuto is always outfitted with armour, under (and sometimes within) which he hides chemical ingredients—the danger his blood poses when exposed to others is minimized by covering his back, chest, outer arms, and legs in durable mail that he secures with a leather shoulder-piece. He normally only wears the full set on missions, and sticks with arm guards for casual-wear. He carries a light jacket but rarely actually wears it, although he once used it to distract Itachi Uchiha in a fight. The jacket, like his armour, has several zippers and pockets in which he stores packets, poisons, and ingredients. His off-duty clothes are a similar style. Gakuto seems to prefer an athleisure-inspired wardrobe and prioritizes breathability, maximum coverage, and certain fabrics over style. He favours red and pale green colours, but his beloved off-duty sneakers are an unfashionable yellow-green. Abilities Gakuto is fairly adaptable in a fight, and a self-styled "tweaker": he is able to find and exploit flaws in enemies' ninjutsu that help to strengthen his own ninjutsu, as well as modifying existing elemental techniques in curious ways to suit the situation. He initially took to water jutsu for his main attacks, later finding his affinity in fire release techniques to build up his attack and defence. Having grown up in Shangri-la, he has a high affinity for genjutsu and is a practiced hand at recognizing and dispelling illusions; he often baits opponents into making the first move by disorienting or disguising terrain. Gakuto's taijutsu is passable, but it's by far his weakest skill. The risks of exposure to his blood make it very dangerous for him to be a close-combat fighter; he relies far more on his speed and agility to outpace opponents and stay out of range. His skills are best applied to high damage stealth roles, and he prefers to leave the heavy lifting to combat squads or the designated first point of contact. He struggled as a registered ninja because he was reluctant to use "underhanded" tactics like contact poison and turning others' weaknesses against them in case he risked revealing his origins, but ultimately lacked the necessary discipline for more flashy techniques. His exchange program with Konoha and his contract with the rhinos has expanded Gakuto's skill set to the point where he feels comfortable utilizing his background in poisons, although he refuses to fight using his blood unless he's certain it won't be a danger to his comrades. Poisons Poisons, by necessity, are Gakuto's strongest skill. As a child, his mother coached him through the process of mithridatism. He payed close attention to her "cooking lessons," wherein all plants and forage-able items were categorized into "edible," "poisonous," "medical," or "other." It was the "other" plants that made him nervous. In addition to slowly inoculating himself, Gakuto learned to distrust any meal he hadn't prepared on his own. He practices a unique form of poisons cultivation in ingestible and food-borne poisons, and possesses the necessary skills to slowly saturate his body with poison without negatively impacting his own health. For his mastery of this technique, Gakuto earned the nickname '''Sweetbread '(シビレ, Shibire). Gakuto also has a comprehensive knowledge of herbalism and chemistry; he can identify plants by leaf and flower structure as well as the individual parts of plants and their exact uses. Gakuto is highly competent in both medicines and poisons, and apparently has some skill with healing; however, his knowledge was rooted in medical and pharmaceutical fields instead of ninjutsu. He has enough medical skill to counteract unfamiliar venoms and poisons created by other shinobi. His candy-like "medicine balls" are ranked among the highest quality fast-acting medicines for active shinobi, as they have minimal risks (or negative side effects) and a generally pleasant taste. Kinjutsu The Iwahara family's kinjutsu allows Gakuto to produce an extremely toxic and inexhaustible poison from his blood, which he uses many of the poisons and ninjutsu techniques he’s picked up over the years. Gakuto has heavily altered his body by absorbing and infusing his body's physiology with highly concentrated poison. He has been able to saturate his body with undetectable poison that has completely merged with his body's own cell structures, including those of his blood and internal organs all the way down to the very tips of his fingernails. In Part I, Gakuto's body is infused with about 57 kilograms (76 kilograms in Part II) worth of poison, which far exceeds the median lethal dose for the average person. Depending on the size of the opponent he engages, he is sometimes capable of melting organic material. Endocrine System Gakuto has the fine chakra control necessary to consciously manipulate his endocrine system, a chemical messenger system consisting of the regulation of hormones to distant target organs. This system allows him to halt the production of certain hormones to eliminate things like scent, which makes him more difficult to track. He can also catalyze the production of hormones, particularly erythropoietin (EPO), which promotes formation of red blood cells by the bone marrow. Although this increases the overall toxicity of his blood (and therefore makes close combat with him more dangerous), EPO is exclusively produced in the kidneys and excessive catalysis will cause painful kidney failure. Gakuto's grasp of this ability comes with a few barriers: he currently maintains a chokehold on his body's hormone distribution in order to avoid stroking out, which makes it difficult for him to absorb and distribute hormones without interference. The extreme amounts of poison carried in his blood also elevates his blood pressure, which requires him to manually regulate the production of adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine. He has virtually no fight or flight response (as distribution of the "big three" stress hormones are severely handicapped) and cannot benefit from any last-minute bursts of strength, so he has to rely on meticulously planning every battle and allocating physical resources (chakra, stamina, etc.) with extreme prejudice. He tries very hard to make his fights quick or one-sided, so fast-acting poisons are his go-to tool. In addition, he’s more susceptible than the average person to intravenous narcotics. Other Skills Summoning Gakuto has made contact with the armoured rhinoceros summons. In addition to providing standard aid in battle, his summons instruct him in the use of fire release techniques and applications for medicines in combat. The Fire Release: Pharaoh's Serpent is mostly unique to Gakuto's bloodline, as it requires the use of his mercurial blood for proper execution; however, the technique itself is kept secret by the Rhino Boss. It's possible that the rhinos were actually Mitsuari's personal summons - Gakuto often takes this into consideration when theorizing on their origins. Under the tutelage of the Rhino Boss, Gakuto has mellowed out somewhat and no longer seems reluctant to use his "underhanded" techniques. Bukijutsu Gakuto is reasonably skilled in the use of ninja weapons, especially long-range tools. His essential training begins midway between Parts I and II, where he becomes proficient with his mentor's gift, a set of throwing knives. Prior to Part I, Gakuto used only a select few tools (mostly tags and bombs). Yuka was allegedly an "excellent shot," and may have graced him with some practical experience with a bow and arrow; Gakuto mentions having to hunt for game, which could refer to bow proficiency or to a familiarity with traps. Gakuto typically exhibits a higher level of paranoia than his less seasoned year mates, and he has engineered custom explosive tags altered to expel airborne chemicals, including a neurotoxin and a paralytic. They also double as stylish accessories, which makes it difficult for others to catch him unarmed. Relationships Mitsuari Iwahara TBA Kochō Akimichi TBA Hige Inuzuka TBA Yuki TBA Part I TBA Part II TBA Notes © 2017 by @User:Shotons. All Rights Reserved. I do not own Naruto or any of its related content. I do, however, own this character and their information! That being said: Gakuto Hara and related media (ie. fanfictions, spin-offs, and subsequent sequels) are my intellectual property and are under copyright. Any theft or repurposing of this character or their background without the original author's EXPRESS PERMISSION will result in immediate action. If you have questions or concerns, please contact me for further information. I spent a very long time putting this together and I would greatly appreciate it if anyone who DOES want to use this character, for whatever purpose, please talk to me about it first!! Thanks. Trivia * The names of Naruto characters are almost always objects or concepts (as opposed to recognized names). "Gakuto" comes from the characters "楽人"; the literal reading is "musician," but it can also be read as a colloquialism for a carefree person. Alternative spellings include “学徒” (gakuto), meaning student or follower; and “学徳” (gakutoku), meaning “learning and virtue.” ** “Hara” simply means “field,” “plain,” or “wilderness.” He’s taken on this diminutive of his actual surname, Iwahara (巌原, meaning “rock, crag” and “field, plain”), to hide his affiliation with his birth family. ** 'Sweetbread '(シビレ, Shibire) is the alias he earned from the toxicology department. Gakuto largely works with ingestible substances; most of his poisons enter his opponent's soft tissue to cause major organ failure, and he particularly targets the liver, lungs, and stomach—in animals, dishes cooked from these organs are referred to as "sweetbreads." * Gakuto loves fast food and considers it one of his "guilty pleasures." * Gakuto's favourite word is “nakayado” (中宿), meaning “inn where one rests on the way.” Quotes Reference * Profile images via Picrew.me. Category:DRAFT